Safety Culture

Introduction
It is important to realize that only investigating accidents is a narrow approach in the tradition of fly-crash-fix-fly. There are often dozens if not hundreds of incidents and near misses that could provide valuable information for improving safety. However, if people are not reporting them for fear of punitive action, or if the organization emphasis is too heavy on production and profit and not safety, these opportunities for change can slip through our fingers.
Instructions
Read the Prologue and Epilogue from the SMS text and Safety Culture Environment on page 28. Consider the aspects of a safety culture and identify specific actions taken by the SMS team in the Quest Airlines scenario. How did they create a safety culture and how did it help in improving safety? Finally, review the events of the Colgan and Alaska accidents. Can you identify any aspects of a safety culture on a personal or organizational level? Would a safety culture have influenced the outcome in these accidents? Discuss how the end result may have been different and why, and what the airlines could do to enrich their safety culture.
Grading
Your response should be at least 500 words in length. This assignment is worth 50 points and will be graded according to the following rubric:
15 Points – Identify at least three specific actions that illustrate QALs ongoing effort to encourage their safety culture.
15 Points – Explain how the safety culture at QAL will improve their overall safety.
15 Points – Discuss the Colgan and Alaska accidents reviewed in previous assignments. How and why might a safety culture have changed the outcome of each accident? Identify at least one specific action the airlines could take to encourage their safety culture.
5 Points – Your response is well written and free of any significant grammatical or spelling errors.

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